"I believe in Matt. He's the quarterback of our football team. I've got no doubt about him," Kubiak said Monday via Tania Ganulia of the Houston Chronicle.

Teammates like J.J. Wattstarted to rally around Schaub with criticism increasing in Houston. There's a segment of the fan base that would apparently like to cut Schaub. That's a ridiculous notion; he's still an average NFL starting quarterback at worst. That has a lot of value.

It's surprising to see so much vitriol against Schaub after a game in which the Texans defense gave up 41 points. Schaub had a killer interception, but played pretty well otherwise. You can fault Schaub largely for contributing to Houston's losses at the end of the regular season which led to them falling out of the No. 1 seed. Schaub was hardly the main reason the team lost to the Patriots.

"There's plays for him to make, but he did make a lot of plays, too. We could have helped him," Kubiak said.

We don't think it's that outrageous for the Texans to give Schaub some competition in training camp or draft a quarterback fairly high with an eye toward development. T.J. Yates showed promise as a rookie and will be entering his third season in 2013.

Based on Kubiak's comments, however, Schaub should remain the unquestioned starter. They can win with Schaub, but to win it all their defense and running game need to be truly dominant. Both fell off slightly this season, and Schaub fell with them.